First times can be awkward. This "First Contact" is the most awkward thing ever. The level of incompetence on both sides is galactic. Klaatu, the ambassador of a highly evolved civilization, doesn't know what he's doing, at all. He doesn't have a plan. He knows the language, but he doesn't know how to communicate. He is secretive about his mission, but he demands that all the leaders of the world should assemble, so that he could tell them his message all at once and in person. He can't understand why they decline that request. He is the most arrogant, aggressive and inept messenger of peace ever. His civilization obviously doesn't believe in wireless communication, in diplomacy, in psychology, in basic courtesy. It's: Do what I tell you to do - or die. He surely didn't come to make friends.
The mindset of "The Day..." is very, very strange indeed. It's one of the first "First Contact" movies. Neither the author nor the director had any experience with this storyline, and it shows. For the First Contact Klaatu hides his face behind a helmet and he draws a device that looks like a terrifying weapon - how stupid is that? Klaatu is supposed to be a wise and dignified victim of humanity's ignorance. There is not a hint of critique of his unintelligible actions. He is still presented as a messianic figure and mankind as a primitive backwoods bunch that should just shut up and obey. This clumsy political message is actually annoying. Though: Compared to the disgusting mindset of the charmless remake from 2008 this is still a much more humane and likable movie.
"The Day..." has a lot of charme and some iconic moments, but it is not a classic. It shares most of its pleasures with other science fiction movies from the 1950s. Terrific black and white aesthetics, great design, great cars, great simple-mindedness.
The screenwriter only took the basic premise from the original story. In Harry Bates' "Farewell to the Master" from 1940 an ovoid "time-space traveler" materializes close to the Smithsonian Institution. Two days later, a humanoid with a friendly face, raising his right hand to show that he is unarmed, and a giant robot walk down a ramp of the ship. The humanoid says: "I am Klaatu and this is Gnut." - and he gets killed by a hidden assassin with a rifle, who thinks that the Alien is the devil. Klaatu is dead, Gnut freezes and doesn't move for three months. The rest of the story is completely different from "The Day..." and quite bizarre, with a gorilla and sound clones. It's a curiosity, it couldn't have been turned into an appealing movie like "The Day..." has been, for decades. Well, maybe it will, when AI is ready to visualize the innumerable science fiction stories of the 30s, 40s and 50s in glorious black and white films.
The mindset of "The Day..." is very, very strange indeed. It's one of the first "First Contact" movies. Neither the author nor the director had any experience with this storyline, and it shows. For the First Contact Klaatu hides his face behind a helmet and he draws a device that looks like a terrifying weapon - how stupid is that? Klaatu is supposed to be a wise and dignified victim of humanity's ignorance. There is not a hint of critique of his unintelligible actions. He is still presented as a messianic figure and mankind as a primitive backwoods bunch that should just shut up and obey. This clumsy political message is actually annoying. Though: Compared to the disgusting mindset of the charmless remake from 2008 this is still a much more humane and likable movie.
"The Day..." has a lot of charme and some iconic moments, but it is not a classic. It shares most of its pleasures with other science fiction movies from the 1950s. Terrific black and white aesthetics, great design, great cars, great simple-mindedness.
The screenwriter only took the basic premise from the original story. In Harry Bates' "Farewell to the Master" from 1940 an ovoid "time-space traveler" materializes close to the Smithsonian Institution. Two days later, a humanoid with a friendly face, raising his right hand to show that he is unarmed, and a giant robot walk down a ramp of the ship. The humanoid says: "I am Klaatu and this is Gnut." - and he gets killed by a hidden assassin with a rifle, who thinks that the Alien is the devil. Klaatu is dead, Gnut freezes and doesn't move for three months. The rest of the story is completely different from "The Day..." and quite bizarre, with a gorilla and sound clones. It's a curiosity, it couldn't have been turned into an appealing movie like "The Day..." has been, for decades. Well, maybe it will, when AI is ready to visualize the innumerable science fiction stories of the 30s, 40s and 50s in glorious black and white films.